Welcome to Ms. Periwinkles Kindergarten

You can learn alot about education watching the surveillance cameras in a Toronto public school in one of the troubled communities of North-East Scarborough.

It is noon, and time for the afternoon kindergarten class to arrive. One of the custodians giggles and points at the screen, so the rest of us tradespeoples wander over to look.

That guy has a gun!

Fast rewind shows that the fellow dropped his pistola out from his baggy back pocket. He stood for a bit, then turned around, stepping on his own foot. He reached down and stuffed it back into his ass-crack central pistol holster. No, he did not check to see if the safety was on (or off), or if the hammer was half cocked, or full cocked. No, he has the security of universal health care, and just stuffed a pistol that has been jarred into close proximity to his testicles. Thank you, Pierre Elliot Trudeau!

That guy does not have a gun.

Thats what the shift supervisor said. He was still eating the Tuesday Pizza, Ribs and Wings that the Board brings in on Tuesdays.

Besides, we do not who he is. So, the guy with a gun who brought a kid to kindergarten is unknown to us. So says the shifty (as shift supervisors are known). So we all return to our Tuesday fare of Pizza, Ribs, and Wings. The shifty goes back to his office, computer, and his Pizza, Ribs, and Wings. And from his office, he shouts: Guns are not allowed on School Property. We can hear him pound on the sign that says Guns are not allowed on School Property with a pencil.

I know who he is. Thats what one of the plumbers said. That kid is in Ms. Periwinkle’s kindergarten.

Indeed. The kid with the gun toting caregiver lives with his baby momma. There are up to three adult males living there at any one time, along with assorted other baby mommas and their children from historically subjugated cultures. Certainly, there is no lack of adult male interaction for healthy child development. Only a racist could criticise this social structure, so similar to that of the Bonobo.

And every day, the kid gets one of his not-gun toting uncles to take him to school. After all, there are no guns on school property. The sign says so. And our Ms. Periwinkle, for the next year, is going to be up close and personal to those that are oppressed and outraged by the inherent racism of Canadian Society, the presence of the invisible snow plow of white privilege, and the lingering effects of colonialism in Africa. Next year, maybe not … then it will the Grade one teachers turn.